Until just a week ago, I thought the words to the second verse of “What A Wonderful World”, was…
I see skies of blue and clouds of white
The bright blessed day, dogs say goodnight.
And I think to myself, what a wonderful world. :smack:
Also…
My husband got an old Elton John Cd that had songs I never heard before. I thought “Have a Little Faith In Man” was “I’m A Little Filthy Man”. I’m not an Elton John Fan.
My kids are a wealth of mondegreens.
One referred to Silent Running by Mike and the Mechanics as “Can You Hear Me Brother?” The same child thought “Eminence Front” was called “Eleven O’Clock”. I thought that was actually pretty good, since you could hardly expect the kid to have the word eminence in her vocabulary at that age.
The other one likes that Tom Petty song “Three-Four-in.”
I’ll try to remember more.
Yep.
Me too.
I always pictured happy puppies during that line, and it’s hard to not do that even though I know the actual words now.
:smack:
I know thes aren’t the real lyrics, but my mind plays perverse tricks on me.
I keep hearing the Phil Collins line “Bring me your Higher Love” as
“Bring me Thor Heyerdahl”.
It’s Steve Winwood, actually. I always mishear the lyric from his song “Valerie” as:
Valerie, cautery
Cautery, Valerie
Come and see me
I’m the same boy I used to be
I’m pretty sure it’s “call on me” but for the life of me, Steve Winwood might as well be a surgeon.
For years, whenever I heard the Police hit “Every Breath You Take,” I thought Sting was singing “I’m a poolhall ace” (like Minnesota Fats), when he was really singing “how my poor heart aches.”
I didn’t learn the Dark Sacred Night till a few months ago. I think some commercial with Tony Bennet singing it made it clear to me.
Oh and I remember working in a movie theatre and showing Good Morning Viet Nam and watching the ‘What a Wonderful World’ bit about 50 times.
Make it three. I read the OP and thought… well then, what the hell ARE the lyrics? Dark sacred night, hmph. I like our version better.
My personal mondegreen would have to be Peter Gabriels’ Games Without Frontiers - for the longest time (ie, until a few months ago) I thought the line “Jeux sans frontieres” was actually “She’s… so POPular!” Well, it does kinda fit the song, in a really lateral-thinking kinda way.
Well what is the line befor the dogs say goodnight?
The bright blessed day
So the Dark Sacred Night makes a lot more sense.
Who ever said songs had to make sense? “I am the walrus, koo koo kachoo”? The line just before that is “They are the eggmen”. Apply your argument to THAT!!! 
I am possibly the worst offender for these sorts of misinterpretations.
Bright Lights by Matchbox 20:
“She got out of town
On a railway, New York bound
Took all except my name
Another alien out on Broadway”
I always thought it was “she can’t accept my name”.
Another one by Matchbox 20, “Unwell”:
“Well I’m not crazy
I’m just a little unwell
I know right now you can’t tell
But stay a while and maybe then you’ll see
A different side of me”
I totally thought it was “a different sodomy”. It really made me wonder just how different it could be!
There are others too (it’s not just Matchbox 20!). It’s just too embarassing to itemise all the lyrics I’ve been singing wrong all my life LOL
Max.
Is that right?
Good grief, I’m worse than you then; thought the line was “She’s so POP-ular” until I read your post this very minute!
Damn your bi-lingual hide, Peter Gabriel!!
Oh, man, I misheard the Peter Gabriel one, too - at least I’m in good company! I also thought it was “She’s so POP-ular”. And I’m bilingual!
One I messed up for years was the Squeeze song “Pulling Mussels (From The Shell)”. I was just a wee stump when I first heard it, and I’ve forever thought it was “Pulling Muscles For Michelle”. I thought a lady named Michelle had asked the songwriter to do some heavy lifting.
I decided to decipher some of the other chorus lyrics. Bad idea… the line “But behind the Chalet” became “Look behind the shellac” … I guess I was still thinking of Michelle. Maybe she wore heavy makeup? :smack:
And, although I knew it was to be wrong, I always heard it as “She’s so FUCK-ing young” or possibly “She’s still FUCK-ing her” :eek:
Still a great song, though.
Me too, apparently. And I’ve spoken French since I was a boy. I’m having trouble imagining how to make the French line fit. “Jeux… sans FRONT-ti-ères”?
Wierd. It’s also been a long time since I heard that song, and I was too young to really pay much attention when it was on the radio a lot, I think. Ism’t there a line about “Games without frontiers” in it, though, that might have tipped me off?
It might as well be…I’m never going to be able to remember that snooty French stuff!
I always heard “She’s so funky, eh?”
Hey, it’s almost Canadian, although it makes no damned sense.
As for the French, Jeux sans fron-ti-ères, right?
And I’ve always sung “Hold me closer, Tony Danza”, even though I know what the lyrics are. I also remember when the song Tub Thumping first came out, I had no freakin’ clue what they were saying. Now that I know, I can’t remember what I’d thought it was before.
I have so many of these I can’t count 'em (but this reminds me that I haven’t paid a visit to the Misheard Lyrics website in awhile–it never fails to make me laugh so hard that I pee a little in my pants)! But two off the top of my head:
Steely Dan’s I Got The News:
Real Lyrics
How was I to know
‘bout the warm, soulful secret
you’ve been keepin’ for years?
auntie em lyrics
How was I to know
‘bout the warm sofa sleepers
you’ve been keepin’ for years?
Journey’s Separate Ways:
Real Lyrics
Break those chains that bind you
auntie em lyrics
Great balls chase and find you
:eek:
Well it’s the name of the song but yes it goes,
Games without frontiers,
War without tears.
It’s a great song, second maybe only to Solsbury Hill (which, on a related note, I thought was Salisbury Hill for a long time, but that’s a lot more understandable, overcompensating for his accent). Just glad I’m not the only one who misheard it (especially since I don’t speak French! 
)
Some great ones from my husband:
“Hold me close, I’m tired of dancing” (his interpretation of “Tiny Dancer”)
“867 Box 309” (Jenny - 867-5309)
In the Fabolous song “Can’t Deny It” (featuring Nate Dogg), I always thought he said, “You can hear my poop a block away,” when he really says, “You can hear my coupe a block away.”
In defense of myself, a few lines later he uses the word “shittin’.”